Monday, June 8, 2015

With the proliferation of electric vehicles like the i3, the absence of a robust fast charge infrastructure becomes more and more difficult to ignore. There are indeed areas of California which are served very well with DC Fast Charge stations, however for many EV owners outside California, Fast charge stations are something they only dream about. Georgia however, has been making some great progress with DCFC. Georgia resident and i3 owner Chris Campbell tells us what's happening with DC Fast Charge in the Peach State.

Chris with his Volt back in 2010

You may remember Chris from a post he made here last year. Chris was the very first Chevy Volt owner in Georgia back in 2010. He authored a guest blog post here telling his story and why he had decided to get a BMW i3 when he turned in his Volt. Many i3 purchases have come from buyers which were early adopters and had leased an early Volt or LEAF. Chris has been active in the Atlanta area's EV scene for a while and maintains a website full of EV information, which can be found here: www.http://electrifyatlanta.com
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For over a decade, Georgia has offered a generous $5,000 tax credit in
support of getting an electric vehicle (EV). But only in the last three to four
years has the market offered affordable cars with usable range, and
suddenly huge numbers of Georgians have taken advantage of that
incentive. In the last session, the state legislature took notice of
this growth and killed the tax credit altogether, with it officially
ending this month. June 30th
is the last day that Georgians can get an EV (purchased or leased) and
still be able to claim the credit when filing taxes next year.

So there is now one last mad rush to take advantage of one of the best
EV incentives in the country. Potential EV owners are making their
final decisions and dealers are scrambling to respond to demand and
maintain inventory.

BMW i3 owner "heat map" illustrates Atlanta hot spot

The Nissan Leaf, by far the highest volume EV in the Georgia market,
continues to dominate sales, but the BMW i3 has also enjoyed success in
the Atlanta market, as illustrated by this "heat map" showing locations
where owners voluntarily listed themselves on the i3 owner map. Atlanta
is a true hotspot for EV ownership, and has an active i3 owner group!

NRG EVGO station at Mall of Georgia, CHAdeMO only

Besides the state tax credit, however, there has been another factor
energizing EV uptake in Georgia: a large and accelerating roll out of DC
Fast Charging (DCFC) stations. The first DCFC stations (CHAdeMO for
Leafs) arrived in north Georgia in July 2013 via The EV Project (aka
Blink), but the CHAdeMO rollout really accelerated in November 2014 when
NRG entered the Atlanta market with their EVGO CHAdeMO stations. As of
this writing there are now over 30 CHAdeMO stations in the metro
Atlanta region, with another dozen expected online in June.

Of course, as most EV owners know, there is not just one DCFC plug
standard -- there are three! In 2008, before the current wave of EVs,
the automakers all (except for Tesla) agreed on a Level 2 standard, the J1772 plug that is
now familiar to all EV owners. But they did not come to an
agreement on DCFC (sometimes inaccurately called Level 3), and so the EV
market split into three camps:

Since that market split, the three different camps have proceeded with
their respective DCFC station rollouts, with Chademo and Tesla fighting
for the lead and SAE Combo in a distant third. However, we have started
to see "dual standard" DCFC stations hit the worldwide market, offering
both CHAdeMO and SAE Combo. While these stations do not directly
support the Tesla interface, Tesla owners can now buy a $450 adapter
from Tesla Motors, that lets them charge from CHAdeMO stations. So these
dual-standard stations effectively support all three standards. Of
course Tesla cars have far larger batteries, offer far more range, and
typically take advantage of their own network of ultra-fast DCFC
stations.

BMW-branded DCFC unit, SAE Combo only, 24 kW

The SAE Combo flavor of DCFC (compatible with the BMW i3) first appeared
in Atlanta in late 2014, with a single dual-standard cabinet at a
Georgia Power testing facility, unfortunately accessible during weekday
business hours only. In January a second SAE Combo unit appeared at BMW NA's offices, however that BMW-branded unit only offers 24 kW peak
power. Obviously with just these two i3-compatible DCFC stations, one
with limited access and the other offering low power, and both located
in the same side of town, they were of limited utility to i3 owners.

It was not until this week that the true potential of the BMW i3 was
realized in the north Georgia market, with a wave of SAE Combo DCFC
sites going online.

Georgia Power's first dual-standard DCFC station

Following nearly a year of planning and construction, regional electric
utility Georgia Power has now launched their network of DCFC stations,
which are DUAL-STANDARD. These new stations offer both CHAdeMO and SAE
Combo plugs, and thus are able to charge every DCFC-capable EV in the
U.S. (even the Model S via Tesla's new adapter). Georgia Power's DCFC
sites deliver 50 kW and will offer Level 2 charging stations as well.
Their network launched in May with pilot stations at 11 Georgia Power
locations in 4 cities, and will expand to a total of 60 stations
statewide by the end of 2016. The first wave of stations launched
temporarily with only CHAdeMO capability, but on June 2nd Georgia Power
finally delivered on their promise and brought their first dual-standard
station online, with more expected this week.

This is just the first wave. Georgia Power plans to spend 2015
installing 25 more stations at locations around the state, and then
another 25 in 2016. Some will be in metro areas, essentially serving
commuters, but some will be installed along interstate corridors,
serving those EV owners eager to stretch the legs of their new car.
Since every one of these stations will offer dual-standard DCFC, these
stations will support ALL EV owners. Atlanta-area BMW i3 owners have
been straining at the leash for these stations to finally go online, and
the day has now arrived.

Pictured at left: NRG's new dual-standard BTC hardware

But Georgia Power is not the only player in the market offering
dual-standard charging. NRG entered the Atlanta market in November 2014
with CHAdeMO-only stations, but recently has been expanding their
presence with dual-standard DCFC stations made by BTC Power.
Unfortunately, while these BTC stations have internal hardware that
supports both CHAdeMO and SAE Combo charging, these new stations have
been popping up with the SAE Combo side disabled. It is rumored that
NRG (and partner Nissan) have asked BMW to chip in on the cost of these
stations. If that is indeed the case, I believe it would be wise for BMW to step up and contribute to this much needed infrastructure.

Signet DCFC cabinet with Greenlots network

A similar situation is playing out with some state-funded stations. The
Georgia Environmental Financing Authority (GEFA) is an arm of the state
government that normally funds projects like water and sewer
improvements, but in 2014 they announced a grant opportunity for
GEFA-funded electric car charging stations at municipalities and
educational institutions. Following a frenzied application window that
reportedly lasted only hours before the funding was all used up, GEFA
delivered on those grants in late 2014, and since then stations have
been popping up in locations around the state, beyond metro Atlanta. Three of these locations are Athens, Augusta and Columbus, where
GEFA-funded DCFC stations went online in April. These stations launched
with only CHAdeMO capability, despite the GEFA grants specifically
requiring dual-standard DCFC. Indeed the Signet hardware that was
physically installed did include SAE capability, with even the cord and
plug installed and ready to go, but the SAE Combo plug was disabled in
software (via the Greenlots activation network). Again it appears that
Nissan maneuvered to have the stations installed with SAE Combo, but
with that capability disabled until BMW chipped in. Local i3 owners
raised this concern with BMW via a variety of methods, and in late May,
these three locations saw their SAE Combo plugs quietly get enabled. The rumor now is that this solution will soon spread to similar stations
that have appeared in the Carolinas, further enabling regional travel
by i3 owners. BMW of North America has made no public statements about what is
going on at any of these, frustrating local i3 owners.

Table comparing DCFC cabinets seen in Georgia market

Georgia now boasts EIGHT different makes of DCFC station hardware,
operating on six different networks (click here for details on the station hardware now operating). Thus, the state now has one of the
most heterogenous DCFC station populations in the world, exceeded only
by California, and certainly Georgia can be seen as a great market to
evaluate DCFC developments and test car compatibility.

All of this DCFC activity, especially the SAE Combo roll out, has
delighted local BMW i3 owners, who have been chomping at the bit to go
on road trips in their new cars!

2 comments:

Nice post, Tom. I was especially interested in the presumed BMW/Nissan backroom political/marketing dealings. There is no doubt a lot of that going on within the EV business community, including the interplay between pro-EV and anti-EV elements within BMW and other car companies. Engineers vs. executives vs. marketing vs. bean-counters. Would love to be a fly on the wall :-)